Surgical or medical procedures are often performed on a body, for example a human body or anatomy, to repair or replace various portions thereof. For example, the soft tissues of the body may need to be reattached to bones due to trauma, overuse, surgical intervention, or disease.
Soft tissue can be reattached to bone using devices such as screws, staples, and various types of suture anchors. Soft tissues are often fixed to various positions on the bone. For example, to replace a natural tendon fixation point or to replace the tendon itself, fixing a graft to a selected bone area may be desired. One means to fix the soft tissue to the selected area is to provide a suture through a selected portion of the soft tissue and fix the other end of the suture to a selected area on the bone. Various structures can be provided to anchor or hold the suture in the selected bone area.
Although suture anchors do provide a member to fix the suture to a selected portion of a boney portion, it is often desired to provide a suture anchor that will place the suture in close proximity with the tissue, particularly in articulating surfaces. Still other suture anchors require that an opening be predrilled in the bone, when, under certain circumstances it may be desirable to leave the underlying bone intact. Still other situations require that more than one suture be delivered to the implant site without significant problems of overlapping suture regions and a mis-fit of the sutures within the suture anchor.
Accordingly, there is a need for a variety of improved suture anchors for use in reattaching soft tissue to bone. There is a need for surgical methods of securing soft tissue in close proximity to an articular surface. Suture anchors and surgical methods are also needed which do not require a pre-drilled hole in the bone and leave the underlying bone in tact. A still further need is a suture anchor that allows for several sutures to be delivered to a surgical site and that the sutures properly fit within the suture anchor.